Posts from May 2018 (Page 2)

One of the most unspoken parts of passionately following Jesus and trying our hardest to follow him is reasonableness. We stop being irrational. We stop being volatile, closed-minded and shut down to ideas. To the contrary, we’re more reasonable than ever. Too many Christians pick fights over stupid stuff. We just do. We’re known for getting overly attached…

In our passage from this week, we see the scriptures start by reminding us of the joy that we’re supposed to have at all times. Not a joy that invalidates our suffering, but a joy that informs, gives purposes, and hope to them. We talked about joy all last week so we won’t go too in depth today, but one noteworthy part of this passage and the way it talks…

When we walk with joy, even in our hardest moments, we see something beautiful happen. We see God move in such a real and life-changing way. Joy becomes less of a church term for stop complaining and becomes more of a banner we carry proudly. It becomes a beacon of life and hope in our most trying moments. It becomes a sweet reminder in our greatest triumphs. It changes…

This joy is filled with glory. In other words, when we’ve truly accepted and soaked in the joy of God, something happens. We look different. We act different. We’re changed. Our struggles are still very real. Our pain is still there. We still feel the hurt and stress and suffering but now we’ve got this joy. Not the one invalidates the other, not that one steals the…

It’s a strange thing to try and explain this joy. Mostly because the scripture says itself that this joy is inexpressible. I think this is important to note because it sets us up to realize just how different Biblical joy really is from other things we might experience. It is inexpressible. We can’t explain it. We can’t compare it. There is…

Joy is about more than what we feel. That’s probably the most important part of what we learned from our passage Sunday. Joy is not in opposition to pain and sadness because it’s not the same thing. Often times we talk about allowing stress, fear, anger, and sadness “steal our joy” but that’s just not possible. Those two things are completely different. Here…

What is Joy? We often hear about joy in church circles and it’s this callous, hard-hearted, empty statement that is used to invalidate pain. You’re going through something. You’re in the middle of a trial or problem and someone comes at you with the most unhelpful, hurtful, dismissive statement ever. “Count it all joy”, and moves on like they just did you a…

The scary part about our heart’s response when we refuse to forgive is bitterness. It was once said that bitterness is drinking poison in hopes that someone else dies. The pain and hurt we feel can sit and fester and turn into bitterness if we don’t take the healthy and healing path of forgiveness. Bitterness can destroy you. It makes your heart so hard…

Our big question in this week’s message was a simple one. “Will God give me a second chance”? The truth is simple. He does. He forgives you. He lets go of your past and helps you forge a new future. Even when we were at our worst, God still offers us a second chance. Do we offer the same to others? Are we able to give a second chance to the people…

Forgiveness comes with boundaries. Read that again and remember it. Forgiveness comes with boundaries. When we forgive someone, we don’t have to let them back to the same place in our life. When we forgive someone that doesn’t mean they get the same relationship, the same privilege, and the same place in our life. We’ve forgiven but that doesn’t change the past. Here is a…

Forgiveness isn’t a lack of forgetting. We miss that sometimes. Often, when we speak of forgiveness, we speak as if we’re going to act like something didn’t happen. We look at forgiveness as if it’s some form of “never happened” juice that means it never happened to us. It’s not that way though. Forgiveness is not forgetting. Forgetting is not holding someone accountable…